The Voice New Testament: Revised & Updated (Paperback)
I am always a little tentative when I review another "version, translation" of the Bible. There are so many varying translations out there and I have copies of a good many of them. Some of the translations are exemplary; others are not, so when I was asked to review the Voice NT I did so with some trepidation.

Luckily the Voice NT is one of the good ones!!

Granted I can only base my initial review on the New Testament version of this Bible translation but am already looking forward to receiving the full version of the Voice when it is released later in the year.

I really liked the layout of the Voice NT. There are several suggested daily reading plans celebrating Advent, Lent, Easter, Personal Growth and a great guide to read through the New Testament in 24 weeks. I also appreciated the Topical Guide found at the end of the Voice as well as a detailed explanation of the Titles of Jesus. There was great notation throughout the book, commentaries that gave historical and theological insight into the scripture passage.

I also quite liked how the Voice NT accentuated the speakers or individuals in scripture by highlighting the names boldly. For example Acts 5:12 vs. 20 reads: Messenger of the Lord: "Go the temple...", vs.23 Temple Police: "The prison was secure...", vs. 25 Temple Messenger: "You know those men...", vs. 28 High Priest: "Didn't we give you strict orders...", vs. 29 Peter and the Apostles: "If we have to choose between obedience to God...", vs. 35 Gamaliel: "Fellow Jews..."

I found this way of blocking off and highlighting the speakers to be a helpful, distinctive and decidedly different approach to focus on the individual voices in the scripture passage.

The translation itself is very readable in contemporary language. For those of us who have memorized John 3:16,17 from the King James version or the NIV the Voice's translation will appear very different but still as impacting: "For God expressed His love for the world this way: He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting destruction, but will have everlasting life. Here's the point, God didn't send His Son into the world to judge it; instead, He is here to rescue a world headed toward certain destruction."

If I have a negative, it is the fact that the copy of the Voice I was asked to review is only the New Testament. I am not a fan of Bibles that do not have both the Old and New Testaments included in them. That is a personal bias. That said, I understand that the "full" version of the Voice will be released in March so I am looking forward to adding more to this review when I have seen the entire translation.

Overall, I recommend picking up the Voice for individual and group study opportunities.

New Testament has been provided courtesy of Thomas Nelson and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Thomas Nelson